The congestion and pressure in the ports on the US west coast, such as Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland, have forced shippers to search for other entry points into the country, as far away as Houston in the state of Texas, according to Bloomberg. Houston handled the equivalent of 2.99 million TEUs in 2020, in line with the previous year, and ranks among the 10 busiest US ports after Los Angeles, Newark, Long Beach, Savannah, and the Northwest ports of Tacoma and Seattle.
Shipments will continue to grow for months
Inbound shipments through West Coast ports do not appear to be slowing down as they usually do at this time of year. In addition, Washington's newly approved economic stimulus will fuel consumer spending.
Long Beach reported on Wednesday that it had the busiest February in its history. S&P Global Market Intelligence's Panjiva said that US containerized cargo imports had increased by 20% in February over the same month of the previous year and by 15% when compared to February 2019. It was the sixth consecutive month of double-digit growth and congestion problems are expected will continue into the [northern] summer.
The National Federation of Retailers said this week they expect imports at the country's largest container ports will grow dramatically during the first half of 2021.
Source: mundomaritimo.cl